The Monk Temple

[Kalamari]

Question from an aspiring PUG/MNK. How viable is going jobless? [snip]... Is there ANY possible merit to this idea?

Edit: Completely forgot about MNK class restriction on end-game gear.. Well there goes that.

Loved the flexibility in cross-skills that I had as PGL too, so I'm really interested in this as well. The arguments against loosing MNK are Dragon Kick debuff, Demolish for AoE, the 5% Fists of Fire buff, Shoulder Tackle as a gap closer, and a teensy bit of Strength. Now assuming a single target boss fight situation, I don't see any way we could make up for the damage loss from loosing Dragon Kick debuff with cross-skills alone.

However, if there is another MNK in the group keeping up Dragon Kick debuff.. then a lvl 50 PGL build might actually work really well. You would loose the 5% Fists of Fire buff, but both Air and Earth are great alternatives. Loosing Shoulder Tackle as a gap closer hurts, but the distance it covers will save you maybe 3-4s of running every 90s with some extra bit of damage, so I don't think it's a huge deal.

Gaining access to a near passive 10% crit from Archer's Double Tap would be huge asset by itself, not to mention Venom Bite as a powerful extra filler attack (these 2 combined could possibly nearly make up for loosing Dragon Kick when no other MNK in group) along with Raging Strikes + Hawks Eye cooldowns, as Selsix mentioned. Not to mention access to many more

Stacking Internal Release, Blood for Blood, Raging Strikes, Hawk's Eye all at the same time would definitely result in some insane numbers while they are up, for dps races like Titan HM's heart this could be an extremely powerful combo.

I'm really curious and hopeful if this could work, hope some theorycrafters can shed more light on whether or not a level 50 PGL build could actually be viable end-game.

[Allyrion]

The arguments against loosing MNK are Dragon Kick debuff, Demolish for AoE, the 5% Fists of Fire buff, Shoulder Tackle as a gap closer, and a teensy bit of Strength. Now assuming a single target boss fight situation, I don't see any way we could make up for the damage loss from loosing Dragon Kick debuff with cross-skills alone.

I'm levelling a monk now, so I'm not able to test this. Is it really a teeny bit of strength?
I have a 50 BLM and the soul gives me 58 int. That's HUGE. Cooldowns usually feel better than they are. If the monk strength is close to the blm's int, there would be little comparison.
Though the argument is pointless since as you mentioned, they job gear really limits end game content either way.

[Kalamari]

I'm levelling a monk now, so I'm not able to test this. Is it really a teeny bit of strength?
I have a 50 BLM and the soul gives me 58 int. That's HUGE. Cooldowns usually feel better than they are. If the monk strength is close to the blm's int, there would be little comparison.
Though the argument is pointless since as you mentioned, they job gear really limits end game content either way.

Had to switch out Darklight pieces for Amdapor Keep gear and artifact weapon for Ifrit weapon, removing soul is barely 20 less strength from MNK, considerable but not nearly 58. It might be different for BLM's.

Interestingly enough all the primal weapons seem to be eligible for PGL, while artifact isn't. Really wish they'd do away with the arbitrary job restriction on gear so we could play around with PGLst cross-class skills. :[

[kukurumei]

Mnks soul are split between str and vit as their main stats. And oddly a bit of mnd, They really are very good tankers just without the def.

In any respect, it's not really worth it, since you loose all the mnk skills, FoF, dragon kick, are big losts so is shoulder tackle for what it's worth.

It's just not good to be pug after you mnk ever. Sure you loose straight shot, raging strike and virus, but that's life. I really loved virus as it's the only dang thing that can range, and straight shot is like pure awesomeness on pug but dragon kick is more obviously.

[Leonas]

Mnks soul are split between str and vit as their main stats. And oddly a bit of mnd, They really are very good tankers just without the def.

In any respect, it's not really worth it, since you loose all the mnk skills, FoF, dragon kick, are big losts so is shoulder tackle for what it's worth.

It's just not good to be pug after you mnk ever. Sure you loose straight shot, raging strike and virus, but that's life. I really loved virus as it's the only dang thing that can range, and straight shot is like pure awesomeness on pug but dragon kick is more obviously.

And remember, you can still use Blood for Blood from Lancer anyway.

MNK as a job itself works nice with what you can get cross class. Impulse, BfB, Fracture, Bloodbath and... forgot last one.

[JETgroovy]

And remember, you can still use Blood for Blood from Lancer anyway.

MNK as a job itself works nice with what you can get cross class. Impulse, BfB, Fracture, Bloodbath and... forgot last one.

You could use either Invigorate or Foresight. Invigorate is probably the better of the two choices at endgame.

[Leonas]

You could use either Invigorate or Foresight. Invigorate is probably the better of the two choices at endgame.

Thats right. Atm on my 45 mnk I'm using Invig, Impulse, Bfb, and Bloodbath. Waiting to 50 for fracture.

[kukurumei]

And remember, you can still use Blood for Blood from Lancer anyway.

MNK as a job itself works nice with what you can get cross class. Impulse, BfB, Fracture, Bloodbath and... forgot last one.

You get a lot more sj slots without a class due to the way it works, so you could get bfb,straight shot, raging, etc.

It still doesn't make up for dk, but it does make pug a bursting machine.
Yeah, its two of the best cross class skills MNK can pick up next to stuffing Impulse into your rotation.

Yeah, its two of the best cross class skills MNK can pick up next to stuffing Impulse into your rotation.

MRD is kinda like a red headed stepchild. Really wish they left Archer as 3rd subclass, but that'd make MNK way too op with raging strikes and straight shot. Or was that only for DRG with pug and archer for subs prior to release and change to mrd?

IDR but anyhow, on topic, MNK has some solid cross class abilities to choose from.

They originally did have arc. but I guess class balance wise this is why archers got so good. all the offense went to brd, and the def is split between drg and mnk...

It really doesn't make sense what SE was thinking... "ranger" i would understand, but bard?

[Leonas]

Snip for 1000 character limit.[/U]?

Yeah, it doesn't make sense. Maybe they thought that since you're in melee range maybe you want defensive CDs. All I know is, MRD just doesn't really worth well for either drg or mnk imo.